Getting new families and forming cores with spare uteras

The most common way to get new families is usually to build offsets. In this case, the family is formed by selecting from the one or more families 3 … 4 frames with young bees and a sealed brood. The brood is given a uterus or a sealed mother fruit. If frames with bees are selected from one family, the brood will be individual, if from several families – a collective. The most rapidly developing layers, 4 formed on fetal uterus, which are purchased in matkevodnyh nurseries or taken from unused for the intended purpose of nucleuses with spare uterus. However, it is not always possible to purchase them, and the spare often does not remain at all, and the beekeeper usually has to make the bulk of the cuttings on barren uteri or mature queen cells artificially obtained directly from the apiary.

In addition to the formation of layers, new families in some cases receive due to the division of the main families in half.

Before starting to work, the teacher or the apiary manager introduces students to the progress of the implementation of the plan for the withdrawal of queens and the receipt of new families. The beekeeper then shows the layers already obtained by this time in the apiary by using cores for this purpose with spare uterus, which were not required in the spring to fix bezmatelnyh families or replace sick uterus. If time allows, then one or two of these layers are inspected by the whole group. In the absence of time with the process of formation of these families are only acquainted with the records in the magazine of the paseo account. After that, students start direct work on the apiary.

Formation of layers with barren uteri. Getting down to this work, first of all prepare a place for a new nest. Depending on the zone and the time of the year, the leavers are placed either in the adjacent to the main family branch of the hive-lounger, fenced off by a blind partition,

or 2 branches into one hive, or each litter independently. Consider the course of work on the formation of two layers in one hive. This method is more labor-consuming, but allows the layers to heat each other mutually, which is especially important in the northern areas of beekeeping.

Preparation of the hive.

The beehive is thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. Prepare 2 canvases, 3 pillows and 2 well-fitted boards for hives.

When placing two layers in one hive, special attention is paid to the device of the partition between the families, which must be absolutely impervious to bees. If between the two compartments of the hive there is a small gap wider than 4 mm, the uterus in one of the compartments will be killed and all the bees will move to another compartment. On the other hand, it is highly desirable that the baffle is good for passing heat.

A ready partition is inserted into the hive and the canvases are tried on. The edges of the canvas are tightly pressed from above by a bar that is nailed to the top rails of the partition. Flaps for both families are left from different sides (in the front and back walls of the hive). If there is no taphole in the existing beehives in the back wall, you can leave both tapholes in the front wall. To ensure that the bees are not confused with the tapewings, in the middle of the front wall of the hive perpendicular to it is nailed the board, dividing the wall of the hive into two halves. It is also desirable that both halves of the front wall and the landing board are colored in advance by the beekeeper in different colors and by the time the paintwork has dried. Having finished preparing the hive for new families, students begin to form the layers.

Isolation of the uterus.

When selecting bees from the main family, a queen can enter the brood. To prevent this from happening, the uterus is preliminarily covered with a cap on the honeycomb. Looking through several frames in a row, they look for the uterus. Usually, the uterus is located on one of the cells, in cells of which newly laid eggs are found. At the same time, if possible, smoke less, otherwise the uterus with the bees surrounding it will escape from the honeycombs to the walls of the hive. If the uterus is not found at the first examination, the nest is briefly covered with a canvas for a short time and then examined again. The time spent on finding the uterus is compensated by the simplicity of the subsequent work; If the uterus can not be isolated, it will be necessary to examine each frame carefully when stitching it into a bend. When looking at the family, they pay attention to the fact that there were at least 7 … 8 frames with brood in it.

Selection of bees and brood.

To form the layers with barren uterus, take from the main family 1 … 2 frames with the most mature printed brood and rearrange them together with the bees sitting on them in the prepared nest. The bees are also shaken carefully from two frames (some of the older worker bees will fly back to the main family back to their original place). Then, from the edge of the nest, put a frame with honey and perga and a plaque. The top layer is covered with a canvas and well insulated. In the same way, they form a brood from another family and populate the second branch of the hive. Then the hive with two layers is pegged to a permanent place, and the link goes to another job.

Distribution of queens in layers.

The distribution of the queens is carried out after all the links have completed the work on the formation of the layers. By this time, old bees from the layers will fly to the main families, and the layers will better accept the queens. The beekeeper gives each link the necessary number of barren uterus in the cells. Then students alternately open the formed layers and place the queens in them. To do this, somewhat push aside the plaque and the edge frame, gently lift the middle frame and release it from the cage of the uterus.

Then the uterus is covered with a large cap and the ticks are put in order. The next day, the beekeeper or another group, going through the practice, will open the caps and release the queens. If it turns out that there are few bees in the layer and they cover the brood weakly, then before the uterus is released, the bees from the family from which they took the framework for its formation are added here.

It is even easier to distribute the sealed mature queen cells in the layers. In this case, the mother is carefully attached to the upper part of the honeycomb on the middle frame near the brood so that the bees warm it well.

Care for newly formed layers.

After 3..5 days, the beekeeper checks whether the uterus is accepted. To do this, he places one frame with an open brood in each batch. If the next day the bees are filled with fistular queen cells, then the uterus is dead, and a new uterus is given to this litter. After 10 … 12 days after the formation, check whether the uterus has started laying eggs. If eggs appeared on the bottom of the cells, the uterus was fertilized and 1 … 2 frames with brood from the maternal family are added to the litter. As soon as the hive branches become cramped, one of the layers is transplanted to a new beehive placed next to it, and the barrier is removed in the old one. Often, one of the fetuses used to replace the old in the main family, and the layers are combined.

Division of families in half.

The division of the main families is done in two ways: for half a year and a bloom on the uterus.

When divided into half-years, the goal is to divide in half, into 2 families, not only the frames with brood and young bees, but also all flying bees of a strong family. The latter developed a conditioned reflex to the place of standing of the hive in the process of orienting overflights and departure for food. To overcome it and divide the flying bees in half, a new and old hive is placed at an equal distance (0.5 m) from the place where the mother’s family used to be.

Bees returning from a bribe will fly into both beehives. In the evening, in the family, left without a uterus, they plant a young fetus. The main drawback of this method is a sharp weakening of families – from one strong family receive 2 weak. Therefore, in those areas where the main bribe is late (from lime, buckwheat, kipreya, heather), families are divided in the beginning of summer – no later than 35 … 40 days before the onset of the main bribe. If the main bribe, on the contrary, begins early (raspberries, white clover, mixed herbs), and at the end of the summer and in the autumn there is a supporting bribe, the families are bisected immediately after the end of the main honey crop.

When applying a plaque to the uterus, the conditioned reflex of the bee-pickers to the site of the hive parking is used. In a new beehive with honeycombs and artificial wax, put in place of the old, create a new family at the expense of flying bees returning from the field to the habitat of a hive parking place. In the same hive, when the nest is being completed, 2 … 3 frames of the sealed brood are transferred from the main family, 2 frames with honey and perga and the uterus. The old beehive is taken to the other end of the apiary and in the evening is given a new uterus or a sealed mother bowl. The disadvantage of the method is only a strong weakening of families, but also a violation of the normal age composition of bees in both families. However, this method allows you to quickly extinguish the instinct of swarming and return the family to working condition, even if the bees have already sealed the royal queen cells.

Change of queens.

The youngest uterus has the highest egg-laying in the first 2 years of life. The older the uterus, the more it lays off the eggs of the eggs; families with such uterus build a lot of drone honeycombs and swarm more often. Therefore, half of all queens are replaced annually in the apiary. In addition to the two-year-old uterus, in some families even younger queens are replaced, if they have any shortcomings or physical injuries and put few eggs.

On the day of the change of queens, the beekeeper can have young fetuses, which, after artificial removal, were contained in nucleuses, young barren uteri and queen cells. Change of queens should be carried out on a warm, calm day with a bribe. Students of each link are given tasks to change the queens in several families, pre-designated by the beekeeper.

Podsadka of the fetus. It is especially difficult to find the uterus in the main family. As mentioned above, when you examine it you need to use less smoke. Having found out a uterus, it together with a small amount of bees cover on a honeycomb with a cap.

If the old uterus is not bad, which is clearly visible in compact, without omissions and drone larvae, brood, it is not destroyed, but used in the nucleus until the end of the season to increase the additional number of bees for winter. To do this, covering the old and young queen caps on the honeycomb and shaking all other bees back into the nest, the frames are swapped. As a result, the youngest fetus will be in the main family, the old one in the nucleus.

After the transplantation of the queens, both families are put in order and closed, after which the results of the work are recorded in the passe magazine. In the same way, the queens are replaced with the rest of the families. The next day the beekeeper or another group of students examines these families and, removing the caps, releases the queens.

The old uterus in the nucleus is held until the end of the season, and then killed and the nucleus is attached to the main family. As a result, the family receives an additional 3 … 4 streets of young bees for the winter.

Podsadka barren uterus.

In the family they find the old uterus and put it in a box, which is placed between two frames with brood and honey. The next day the beekeeper removes the old uterus from the cell, and in its place is placed a young barren uterus. In another day, the cell is opened, the exit hole is sealed with a thin sheet of wax so that the bees themselves release the uterus.

Replacement of the uterus with a queen cell.

For 2 … 3 days before the setting of the queen cell, the beekeeper selects to the honeycomb of the deceased family. After 2 days, check the exit of the uterus. If the uterus is open from the bottom along the entire circumference, then the old uterus. Carefully inspect the frame and destroy the family-built fistula. Then put a cell with a mature mother liquor in the nest between the frames, previously opening the lower valve. You can also attach a cartridge with a mother cell directly to the uterus is accepted, if it is cracked – the mother is given a second time.

Formation of cores with spare mats.

Nuclei with spare uterus are usually formed in 12-frame hives, separated by blind partitions into 3 compartments and with flaps in different directions.

Fig. Scheme of placement of cores with spare mats in a 12-frame

They are populated with barren uterus, obtained from the next, most often the last in the current season lot of grafted larvae. After the fertilization of the uterus, each nucleus develops independently and accumulates its own young bees to wintering. In the presence of a supporting bribe in August, the hive part of the frames with seeding from such nucleuses is sometimes selected to strengthen the main families for the winter and substitute good light brown honeycombs in return.

Planting swarms.

In natural conditions, bee colonies reproduce by digestion. As the family develops by the end of spring, a significant number of young bees are accumulated in the nest, not occupied with rearing the brood. A small bribe, completely not loading bees with work, in combination with hot dry weather during this period create favorable conditions for the awakening of the instinct of swarming in the bee family. In such families, the bees are laid by the queen eggs and in 12 … 14 days the first swarms come out. Beekeepers collect departing swarms and plant them in new hives. This way of obtaining new families is still used by many beekeepers.

However, the reproduction of bees with the help of natural swarming has a number of significant drawbacks. Being in a complex dependence on the state of the family (the initial strength of the family after the exhibition, the age of the uterus, the size of the nest, the quality of the honeycomb) and the external conditions (bribe size, weather conditions), the instinct of swarming manifests itself unevenly in certain years and in different families. They often swarm not the best in terms of productivity families. Natural swarming does not lend itself to planning, it makes tribal work difficult. Delayed swarming greatly reduces the productivity of bee colonies.

In this regard, beekeepers conduct anti-counter measures. If the natural swarming was not completely avoided, they take part in the collection and planting of swarms.

On a sunny, windless day, when swarms are expected, the instructor instructs one of the units to monitor the respective families. To the landing board of each of the families, which must swarm close to the gangway or insert board, slightly raising its lower end from the ground on a stand or pegs.

In advance they are supplied with glasses and uterine cells. As soon as the bee swarms in the mass begin to leave the tap, they closely follow the uterus and cover it with a glass when they appear on the board. Then gently, taking two fingers, the uterus is placed in the uterine cell. The cell with the uterus is attached inside a rovney suspended on a pole, and brought to the place where flying bees have already been planted. Feeling the presence of the uterus, the bees gather in the rovnyu. If you did not manage to catch the swarm in this way, it is already sprayed lightly on the prio, with water from a syringe or with a broom. When the bees come together, they are shaken into the rover.

Roevni with collected swarms is referred to the winter hut, and by the end of the day they begin to plant the bees in the hives. Before landing, the swarm is weighed, and, having subtracted the mass of the empty rovnya (indicated on the wall), determine the strength of the future family. For the middle band, for example, a swarm is considered good, if at the end of May it weighs at least 2 kg, in June – at least 3 and at the beginning of July at least 4 kg. Weaker swarms are combined together or returned back to the old family.

The cleaned disinfected hive is placed at the edges of the 2 frames with honey and perga, then the frame with a sushi and artificial wax (placing them through one), and before landing the swarm in the center of the nest put 1 … 2 frames with an open brood. The total number of frames in the nest is determined from the calculation of approximately 4 frames per kilogram of swarm bees.

When landing the swarm, the bees are usually shaken out right on the frame, after putting an empty magazine on the hive. Then the store is removed, covered with seven linen and a light pillow and the hive is closed. To ensure the presence of the uterus, the swarm can be planted through the chick. To do this, the gangway is attached to the tap hole and they are poured out of the roe of bees by a special scoop. Among the bees moving to the tap, they search for the uterus. Experienced beekeeper defines bezmotochnye swarms on the behavior of bees. They behave very uneasily and at the slightest cracks they crawl out of the file on the floor of the winter queen.